A good friend of mine recommended detoxing. I thought, I'm feeling a bit low after the end of term, knackered, I've given my liver a bit of a kicking, sure why not? Yesterday, I spent on my futon, reading Peter O'Donnell's 'Modesty Blaise' and drinking smoothies and water.
Do I feel any better for it? I had the worst night's sleep for quite awhile, I've woken up with a splitting headache and I don't feel ready to fight my way out of a bowl of cold spaghetti. Oh that's right, I'm supposed to feel like this. I have given in and am having a cup of coffee though. A woman has to have at least one vice to make life worth living; 1 cup of coffee is not going to send me to Tartaris for all eternity.
I first came across 'Modesty Blaise' in a serialised comic form in the Trinidad Express. In my tender years she became my role model, she was independent, fiesty, sexy, gorgeous and never apologised for being herself. I collected all of Peter O'Donnell's books. Unfortunately, I no longer have them, and they have been very difficult to get hold of. Imagine my joy when I saw that Sovereign Press are re-releasing the collection again. The first one being sold in Waterstones for 99p!
Reading it again was like a home coming, but like many books that I've read when I was young and come back to much later, the experience had changed for me. I noticed different things. Written in the 1960's, it was very much of its time. The gadgets date it, but not overly so. It is the money that really places it; Modesty Blaise and Willie Garvin retired from their life of crime on half a million sterling; had they been recruited into the Civil Service they would have expected a grand salary of £2,000 per annum. In many ways, it's very gentile; the settings are described with a sensuous detail to delight connisseurs of fine cigarettes, alcohol and good jewellery. Fine details which would be unappreciated in today's bling and fling society.
Modesty Blaise is very much a fantasy woman written by a man. I was going to compare her with Lara Croft, Catwoman and a couple of Bond girls and then I realised...they have all been created by men. I'm going to ponder that one for a bit longer.
Bank Holiday Sunday
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Have just read your comments about Modesty Blaise and the others written by men. I sat and was thinking about the "role-model" women written by women today and I'll be honest all I could come up with was Bridget Jones and vague chick-lit girlies. I was taken by the contrast by these two groups of women. The first being written by men and having fanastical qualities to them. I have to be honest and say I'm not familiar with Modesty but Lara, Catwoman and the Bond girls are all fairly alike. They can handle themselves and are by no means weak woman. Of course in the case of Bond girls they only weakened by James Bond himself - the stud! but these are woman who are ballsy, go-getting and seem to "have it all". Then we have Bridget. She has been hailed as a voice for modern women. A woman who is real. We can all identify with her, if not entirely then parts of her whole speak to us. We can laugh, cry and shout with her at the injustice she suffers at the hands of a string of fuck-wits and commitment phobes. As women we don't feel threatened by Bridget. If anything we'd take her out for a glass of Chardonnay and swap hideous boy-friend stories. These other women are those that secretly we aspire to be and are therefore just a little bit scared of them. We know that they would judge us and probably find us wanting. Or maybe that's how men would like us to feel because there is nothing more powerful than a group of women and a bottle of wine.
ReplyDeleteI did have a think about women role models written by women. All my suggestions were fairly cult oriented (cult as in small, but faithful following). Anita Blake, Elena Michaels and Aeriel come to mind...but most people won't have a clue. Aeriel is from the Damar series by Robin McKinely, Elena Micheals, by Kelly Armstrong and of course Anita, the BDSM queen who has far too many men to chose from.
ReplyDeleteI'm not keen on using Bridget as a role model, because role models by their very nature aren't 'real'. They are something to be aspired to, rather than relate to.
My real life example is Germaine Greer. Love her lots for her acerbic wit, cutting intelligence and uncompromising bullishness. As a close personal friend, I think she'd be v hard work.